With the long-awaited fifth season of “Mad Men” kicking off tonight, we decided to put the question to Rich Sommer, one of the stars of the show set in the advertising community in Manhattan. Are there any life lessons that real-life executives can get by watching “Mad Men”?

Sommer plays Harry Crane, the head of media at Manhattan ad agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. In June, Sommer will co-star in a new Broadway production of “Harvey” with Jim Parsons and Carol Kane.

Sommer’s character has taken a career journey that’s familiar to many office workers. He began as a member of the pack, fighting to get recognized; this season, according to Sommer, his character will struggle with using and abusing his growing power. He’ll also get into tussles over office politics, sexual politics, and office size–and that’s just in the first episode.

Sommer says he doesn’t see his Harry Crane character on “Mad Men” as a sexist, but there are life lessons that viewers can draw from what he goes through on the series. For one thing, Sommer points out, Crane fails to recognize the talents of the women around him, losing out on the opportunity to tap valuable human capital.

“Mad Men” is set in the near-past, allowing viewers to get some distance and perspective on sexual, social and racial prejudices that were once widespread. That suggests some questions: What are the biases of our time? Can we get perspective on them today? And are there ways in which we can more fully utilize the talents of the people around us at the office?

Edited excerpts from our conversation with Sommer:

Do you think there’s anything that real businessmen can learn about how to act or not to act from watching “Mad Men”?

Definitely about how not to act. That’s pretty straightforward I think. I would hope that if there’s anything that people can get out of the show in that regard it’s from [series protagonist] Don Draper. He’s the kind of guy who’s willing to think outside the norm, outside the box, and take a risk. If he believes in something, never to waver. There’s a lot of ["Mad Men" creator] Matt Weiner in Don Draper.

What can be learned from your character’s journey?

I think you learn more about what not to do from Harry. He’s certainly let a lot of things go to his head I abhor when people do that. But he’s also a guy who at least with help from his wife realized that he had more value than they were giving him, and that they were recognizing. And he had a willingness to put it on the line. Although that was inspired by opening a co-worker’s check to see how much they made, I think he still asked for what he wanted and he got it, and that sort of even feigned confidence can get you far.

You were born in Toledo, Ohio, and you grew up in Stillwater, Minn. What is it like to go from those places to the Manhattan world of “Mad Men”?

It’s not entirely foreign to me. My wife and I lived in New York City for three years so we certainly know what New York is like. But “Mad Men” could theoretically take place on a farm and we could all be milking cows. It’s really about the relationships and the way these people interact with each other and the way status breaks down in this particular group. I think that has less to do with the fact that we’re an ad agency in Manhattan than you might think.

What were your feelings during the time there were negotiations going on between AMC and “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner about whether or not to bring back the show and when?

It wasn’t even like let the lawyers handle it. We were just uninvolved. We weren’t invited to be part of that. That was all way above our pay grade, the people who were figuring all of that out. We kind of stepped back and remained hopeful that it would all work out and everything would be fine. But we knew that Matt had created this show from scratch, literally the first words of this show were Matt’s. For us, I think he deserves everything and more that he’s ever gotten for the show, and as far as I’m concerned if he wasn’t able to get what he felt like he deserved then the show shouldn’t be made and that should be it. And I was pretty content with that. I had gotten to a point where I wasn’t freaking out about that as I was at the beginning of the run of the show. I wanted the show to continue but not at the expense of Matt’s integrity. Fortunately he remained steadfast.

Tell me about “Harvey.”

This summer I’ll be on Broadway for the first time which is terrifying and exciting at the same time. I’ll be chasing Jim Parsons from “The Big Bang Theory” all over the place trying to throw him into the nuthouse basically.

Check back in with Speakeasy tonight for a full recap of the fifth season debut of “Mad Men” with an all-star panel of contributors.

Christopher John Farley is the editorial director of the Wall Street Journal blogs. Follow him on Twitter at @cjfarley

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